14 DAY TRIAL // The Writer's Guild of America is announcing that Rise of the Tomb Raider, the action adventure title created by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix, is the winner of the Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing for 2015.
The title's narrative was created by lead writer Rhianna Pratchett, lead narrative designer John Stafford, narrative designer Cameron Suey, and additional writer Philip Gelatt.
The Writer's Guild of America has nominated Assassin's Creed Syndicate from Ubisoft, Pillars of Eternity from Obsidian and The Witcher 3 from CD Projekt RED for the same honor.
The award recognizes the quality of the writing and is judged by a panel that's separate for those who judge movies and television programs, with previous winners including the Left Behind expansion for The Last of Us, Assassin's Creed: Liberation, Uncharted 3, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
For a video game to win its writers, it needs to be part of the WGA, which tends to eliminate plenty of major releases every year, but the field for 2015 was filled with interesting experiences and engaging stories.
Plenty of fans of Rise of the Tomb Raider have been complaining about the simplicity of the story that Crystal Dynamics chose to create and have compared it unfavorably with the one that powered the initial reboot.
The general feeling among gamers is that The Witcher 3 and Pillars of Eternity feature deeper narratives and allow their players to experience more emotional moments and complex connections with characters and situations.
Rise of the Tomb Raider follows Lara Croft as she searches for the city of Kitezh in the middle of Siberia, trying to make sense of the events that happened in the previous title, while also trying to stay ahead of a powerful organization called Trinity.
The growth of the protagonist and her interactions with NPCs adds realism to the title, which is balanced by an ending that's heavy on supernatural forces.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is set to arrive for the PlayStation 4 later in the year
The new Lara Croft adventure was delivered as an Xbox One timed exclusive in 2015, after a deal between Microsoft and Square Enix, and has since also arrived on the PC with a series of enhancements, with updates already offered on both the devices.
Crystal Dynamics has also introduced a new supernatural themed piece of downloadable content on both platforms and aims to offer more in the coming months to keep gamers engaged.
The title should also be introduced on the PlayStation 4 before the end of the year, presumably in an edition that includes all the DLC that will be launched until then.
Square Enix has suggested that Crystal Dynamics is already focusing most of its resources on the creation of a third main adventure that features main characters Lara Croft and expands the core mechanics of the franchise.
Writing is becoming more important for major video game releases, which means studios tend to hire more professionals to structure narrative and to make sure that there's a clear connection between the story moments and the gameplay associated with it.